1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for storing entries in at least two separate storage areas of a non-volatile memory and, in particular, to a dynamic redial list in a telecommunications terminal.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventional telecommunications terminals such as, for example, cordless telephones or mobile phones have a non-volatile memory for storing telephone entries, but such non-volatile memory has only a limited capacity.
FIG. 4 shows a schematic view of such a non-volatile memory 1 in which, for example, a permanently predefined storage area A is provided for a telephone directory list, a permanently predefined storage area B is provided for a redial list and a permanently predefined storage area C is provided for customer-specific settings such as volume, ringing tone, warning tones, language etc. The storage area A for the telephone directory list usually has a size of approximately 100 entries (name and call number). The storage area B for the redial list is usually significantly smaller than the storage area A for the telephone directory list and has a capacity of approximately 5 to 10 entries (call numbers). The storage area C is reserved in the non-volatile memory 1 for what are referred to as customer-specific settings, and cannot be used for telephone entries.
However, such a conventional way of implementing telephone entries in a non-volatile memory 1 has the disadvantage that, in particular, the list for the redials, i.e. the storage area B, is too small. In addition, the use of a non-volatile memory with a relatively high storage capacity cannot be considered for cost reasons.
JP 06119234 discloses an arrangement for the administration of storage in which data from a central processor unit is stored in a memory, this data passing through a distinguishing unit which stores the data in a first area of the memory if the data is data which is not to be deleted, and in a second data area if it is data which is to be deleted when an update is made. If the memory space requirement of the data which is to be stored in the first area exceeds the capacity of the first area, the data which is in excess of the capacity of the first area is copied into the second area, and this part of the second area is added to the first area, while the rest of the second area is subjected to what is referred to as xe2x80x9cgarbage collectionxe2x80x9d, i.e. an update is performed in which the data of the second area is deleted, after which the free area of the memory which is created is divided into a new first area and a new second area.
The present invention is, therefore, directed to providing a method and apparatus for storing telephone entries in which particularly the redial list is increased in a cost-effective fashion.
According to the present invention, by sensing free memory space in one of the separate storage areas and assigning weightings for the various storage areas it is possible to dynamically distribute the entire storage areas of the non-volatile memory, resulting in an optimum utilization of the expensive non-volatile memory.
Separate storage areas preferably contain a higher ranking telephone directory list and a lower ranking redial list. Given additional evaluation of the weightings for separate storage areas, up to 100 redial call numbers can thus be stored dynamically at the start of the redial list, its storage capacity being gradually reduced as the higher ranking telephone directory list is filled up. The storage capacity of the non-volatile memory is thus completely used from the start.
In order to prevent the redial list from being completely expelled from the memory, there is preferably the possibility of reserving a minimum size for the redial list which has an identical weighting to the telephone directory list and which, therefore, cannot be deleted.
As a result, when the telephone directory list is completely utilized, a minimum number of call numbers in the redial list is ensured.
Additional features and advantages of the present invention are described in, and will be apparent from, the following Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiments and the Drawings.